Health professionals and governments acknowledge the global crisis of deteriorating mental health among young people.
There is a rise in symptoms of anxiety, depression and emotional sick health among adolescents and young people across nations and youth mental health has been identified as one of the major public health crises facing the world today.
Increased demand at schools and on healthcare services reflects this alarming global trend. Many reports highlight the multiple stress that impact youth including pressure to perform in schools, financial uncertainty, impact of cyber bullying and social media, impacts of COVID-19 and many of them increasingly create an unstable and uncertain future which exacerbates climate related distress and conflict globally.
The problem remains at least one third of children and young people who do not have access the mental health support and services that they need.
This can be due to limited numbers of appropriately trained mental health professionals, long waiting times for treatment and continued stigma related to poor mental health, all of which hinder uptake of mental health support.
Numerous young people are left untreated leading to deterioration in functioning and quality of life, including the impact of poor mental health on school performance and increasing social isolation.
Calls for immediate investment in services and support include the need for Governments to invest in accessible mental health support at the local level, expand counselor education, training programmes, strengthen mental health training across many different work forces and integrating mental health into general healthcare and schools and colleges/ Universities.
Also Read: UNESCO Calls for Education Financing to Protect Learning
Digital interventions may offer support at the global level for youth who are marginalized, isolated and face barriers to accessing professional mental health supports.
Parents, teachers and communities share the responsibility. Governments’ should calls for increased investment and resources in mental health include parents, teachers and communities being encouraged to foster environment which play an important role in mental health that supported at local levels by parents, school and their community networks.
In this moment, investment in young people’s mental health will have long lasting impacts on individual’s, their families’ and communities’ and national economic prospects as well as strengthening mental health at the international level.
